Learning Center What is a mineral?The most common minerals on earth Information for Educators Mindat Articles The Elements The Rock H. Currier Digital Library Geologic Time

Minerals by Properties Minerals by Chemistry Advanced Locality Search Random Mineral Random Locality Search by minID Localities Near Me Search Articles Search Glossary More Search Options

The Mindat Manual Add a New Photo Rate Photos Locality Edit Report Coordinate Completion Report Add Glossary Item

Mining Companies Statistics Users Mineral Museums Clubs & Organizations Mineral Shows & Events The Mindat Directory Device Settings The Mineral Quiz

Photo Search Photo Galleries Search by Color New Photos Today New Photos Yesterday Members' Photo Galleries Past Photo of the Day Gallery Photography

BETA TEST - Fossil data and pages are very much experimental and under development. Please report any problems

Tranatocetidae ✝

Photos

Photo Gallery

Source Data

Source	ID	Link
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ID (GBIF)	8681250	https://www.gbif.org/species/8681250
PaleoBioDB ID (PBDB)	64009	https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=64009

Rank

family (GBIF)
species (PBDB)

Taxonomy (GBIF)

Life : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Cetacea : Tranatocetidae

Taxonomy (PBDB)

Life : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Cetacea : Cetotheriidae : Cetotherium : Tranatocetidae

Taxonomic Status (GBIF)

accepted

Classification
(PBDB,GBIF)

Rank	Name	Author
-	Eukaryota
-	Opisthokonta	Cavalier-Smith 1987
kingdom	Animalia
-	Triploblastica	Lankester 1877
-	Nephrozoa	Jondelius et al. 2002
-	Deuterostomia	Grobben 1908
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1847
subphylum	Vertebrata	Lamarck 1801
superclass	Gnathostomata	Gegenbauer 1874
-	Osteichthyes
-	Sarcopterygii	Romer 1955
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha
-	Tetrapoda
-	Reptiliomorpha	Säve-Söderbergh 1934
-	Anthracosauria	Säve-Söderbergh 1934
-	Batrachosauria
-	Cotylosauria
-	Amniota	Haeckel 1866
-	Synapsida	Osborn 1903
-	Therapsida
infraorder	Cynodontia
-	Epicynodontia	Hopson and Kitching 2001
infraorder	Eucynodontia	Kemp 1982
-	Probainognathia	Hopson 1990
-	Mammaliamorpha	Rowe 1988
-	Mammaliaformes	Rowe 1988
class	Mammalia	Linnaeus 1758
order	Cetacea	Brisson 1762
-	Pelagiceti	Uhen 2008
-	Neoceti	Fordyce and de Muizon 2001
suborder	Mysticeti	Cope 1891
-	Chaeomysticeti
family	Cetotheriidae
subfamily	Cetotheriinae	Whitmore and Barnes 2008
genus	Cetotherium	Brandt 1843
family	Tranatocetidae	Cope 1895

Scientific Name

Tranatocetidae

Opinions (PBDB)

Name	Rank	Opinion	Evidence	Author
Cetotherium megalophysum	species	belongs to Cetotherium	stated with evidence	Cope, 1895
Cetotherium megalophysum	species	belongs to Cetotherium	stated without evidence	Trouessart, 1898
Cetotherium megalophysum	species	belongs to Plesiocetus	stated without evidence	Kellogg, 1925
Cetotherium megalophysum	species	belongs to Plesiocetopsis	stated without evidence	Hay, 1930
Cetotherium megalophysum	species	invalid subgroup of Cetotherioidea	stated without evidence	Steeman, 2007
Cetotherium megalophysum	species	belongs to Cetotherium	stated with evidence	Marx, 2011
Cetotherium megalophysum	species	invalid subgroup of Cetotheriidae	stated with evidence	Goldin and Startsev, 2014
Cetotherium megalophysum	species	belongs to Cetotherium	stated with evidence	Gol'din and Steeman, 2015
Cetotherium megalophysum	species	invalid subgroup of Cetotheriidae	stated with evidence	Marx and Fordyce, 2015
Cetotherium megalophysum	species	belongs to Cetotherium	stated without evidence	Marx et al., 2016

Status (PBDB)

extinct

Taxon Size (PBDB)

First Recorded Appearance

11.6 - 7.2 Ma
Miocene

Last Recorded Appearance

11.6 - 7.2 Ma
Miocene

Environment

marine (based on Mysticeti)

Motility

actively mobile (based on Cetacea)

Diet

carnivore, suspension feeder (based on Mysticeti)

Reproduction

viviparous (based on Cetacea)

Ontogeny

modification of parts (based on Cetacea)

Taphonomy

hydroxylapatite (based on Mysticeti)

Primary Reference (PBDB)

E. D. Cope. 1895. Fourth contribution to the marine fauna of the Miocene Period of the United States. Proceedings of the American Philosphical Society 34:135-155

Subtaxa

Name	Status	Common Name(s)	Fossil Occurrences	Oldest	Youngest
Mesocetus ✝ genus	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)		30	20.4 Ma Miocene	3.60 Ma Pliocene
Mixocetus ✝ genus	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)		1	11.6 Ma Miocene	11.6 Ma Miocene

Obsolete Names

Name	Source	Taxon Rank	Taxonomy
Metopocetus vandelli (Van Beneden & Gervais, 1868)	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Cetacea : Tranatocetidae : *Metopocetus vandelli*
Cetotherium vandelli (Van Beneden & Gervais, 1868)	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Cetacea : Tranatocetidae : *Cetotherium vandelli*
Plesiocetus vandellii (Van Beneden & Gervais, 1868)	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Cetacea : Tranatocetidae : *Plesiocetus vandellii*
Cetotherium megalophysum (Cope, 1895)	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Cetacea : Tranatocetidae : *Cetotherium megalophysum*
Aulocetus latus Kellogg, 1940	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Cetacea : Tranatocetidae : *Aulocetus latus*
Aulocetus vandelli (Van Beneden & Gervais, 1868)	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Cetacea : Tranatocetidae : *Aulocetus vandelli*
Plesiocetus megalophysum (Cope, 1895)	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Cetacea : Tranatocetidae : *Plesiocetus megalophysum*
Plesiocetopsis megalophysum (Cope, 1895)	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Cetacea : Tranatocetidae : *Plesiocetopsis megalophysum*

Synonymy List

Year	Name and Author
1895	Cetotherium megalophysum Cope pp. 146-147
1898	Cetotherium megalophysum Trouessart p. 1071
1902	Cetotherium megalophysum Hay p. 599
1904	Cetotherium megalophysum Case p. 41
1904	Cetotherium megalophysum Trouessart p. 780
1925	Plesiocetus megalophysum Kellogg p. 51

Year	Name and Author
1930	Plesiocetopsis megalophysum Hay p. 572
1938	Plesiocetopsis megalophysum Abel p. 7
2011	Cetotherium megalophysum Marx p. 83 figs. Figure 2
2015	Cetotherium megalophysum Gol'din and Steeman p. 6
2016	Cetotherium megalophysum Marx et al.

References

Cope E. D. Fourth contribution to the marine fauna of the Miocene Period of the United States, Proceedings of the American Philosphical Society 34, 135-155

Trouessart E. L. , Catalogus mammalium tam viventium quam fossilum 5, 665-1264

Hay O. P. (1902) , Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America. Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey 179, 1-868

Case E. C. (1904) Systematic Paleontology: Mammalia, Maryland Geological Survey Miocene: Text, 1-58

Trouessart E. L. (1904) , Catalogus Mammalium Tam Viventium Quam Fossilium, Fourth Edition, 1-929

Kellogg R. (1925) Fossil cetotheres from California, Contributions to Palaeontology from the Carnegie Institution of Washington 348 2, 35-56

Hay O. P. (1930) Second Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America, Carnegie Institution of Washington 390 II, 1-1074

Abel O. (1938) Vorlaeufige mitteilungen ueber die revision der fossilen mystacoceten aus dem Tertiaer Belgiens, Bulletin du Musee royal d'Histoire naturelle de Belgique 14 1, 1-34

Marx F. G. (2011) The More the Merrier? A Large Cladistic Analysis of Mysticetes, and Comments on the Transition from Teeth to Baleen, Journal of Mammalian Evolution 18, 77-100 doi:10.1007/s10914-010-9148-4

Gol'din P., Steeman M. E. (2015) From problem taxa to problem solver: A new Miocene family, Tranatocetidae, brings perspective on baleen whale evolution, PLoS One 10 9, e0135500 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135500

Marx F. G., Bosselaers M. E. J., et al (2016) A new species of Metopocetus (Cetacea, Mysticeti, Cetotheriidae) from the Late Miocene of the Netherlands, PeerJ 4, e1572 doi:10.7717/peerj.1572

Data courtesy of: PBDB: The Paleobiology Database, Creative Commons CC-BY licenced. , GBIF: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, various licences, iDigBio, various licences, and EOL: The Encyclopedia of Life (Open Data Public Domain). Because fossils are made of minerals too!

Quick NavTop Subtaxa Obsolete Names Synonymy List References

Mindat.org is an outreach project of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2024, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: April 30, 2024 20:03:55

Go to top of page